One of the situations that can slow down our progress in training are “involuntary” breaks, for example when we go on vacation and we do not have access to our usual training place, when we have to study and we do not have much time to train or when we have difficult work schedules or other responsibilities.

Most of the time these situations are a relatively valid excuse for not training, and few people will reply to you about your decision. But if we analyze it carefully we will see that it is an excuse and that you could really continue training quite effectively, managing to at least lose very little of your progress, sometimes even improving or continuing to progress towards your goals.

It must be taken into account that sometimes a break is necessary and productive, for example if you have been training well and intensely for months and now you have a week in which you go on vacation, it may be a good idea to take it as a relief and to not train during that week. But if you have not been training so intensely, or the duration of the break is going to be longer than that, then I would recommend that you not stop for so long, and that you follow the advice that I am going to give you right now so that you can continue achieving your goals even if you are in another place or have little time.

Approach for a minimalist training when you have little time

What you should keep in mind is that, as long as you give an intense stimulus to the muscles you want to work, it doesn't matter where, how, when or for how long you do it. If you want to train your chest, it doesn't matter whether you do it with a state-of-the-art gym machine, with weighted dips, or with some simple push-ups on the floor. If you give it the right stimulus, the muscle will respond the same.

To do this you just need to take into account what resources you have, and how you can use them in the time you have available. Normally, if you are traveling, you may only have the floor, and at most a bench and a wall. No problem, the versatility of calisthenics allows you to do good workouts without any equipment.

I am going to give you examples of training that you can do without material and in less than 20 minutes for any type of situation:

Example of a minimalist routine without material in 20 minutes or less

* For the push day, do 3 sets of push-ups, almost reaching muscle failure, in a progression in which with less than 30 reps you are already close to that failure. For some people it may be with regular push-ups, or even knee-supported push-ups, but for others they may need to add extra difficulty, for example by adding explosiveness, or adding pauses in the bottom part of the movement.

* For leg day, do 3 sets of Bulgarian squats in a progression that takes you close to failure in less than 30 reps. For example, you can do them by adding explosiveness and a pause.

* For pull day you can use a table, chairs or any place where you can hang to do Australian pull-ups. Again, add difficulty with pauses or explosiveness so that you can do 3 sets of less than 30 reps, reaching close to failure.

For all these routines, use breaks of between 2 and 3 minutes between sets.

With this you would have a complete workout that you could do in less than 20 minutes a day and without material. At least you should train 3 times a week and if you want to train more days you can cycle them or add extra exercises.

If you also have more material available or more time, you can now add more complexity and variety. But with this routine I just gave you, you have an example of what would be the most basic thing to at least give a good stimulus to the entire body.

If your training is focused on skills, it will be a good time to focus on ground tricks that you can train perfectly without equipment, such as the planche or the handstand. And if you want to train pulling skills like the front lever or the muscle up, you will have to adapt to the material you have, and again you can find a way to at least train the muscles involved in these movements.

In conclusion we can say that being on a trip, on vacation, with a lot of work or having little time is no excuse for not training, and with only 20 minutes or even less you can get an intense workout without material, that you can do anywhere and that will At least allow you to maintain your fitness level, if not even improve it, until you can return to training normally.

Remind you that in Calisteniapp we have a section of routines to do at home without material where we have more than 100 free routines that can help you. Also for pro users we have a variety of programs and smart progress that can be done without material so that you have a complete plan.

I hope this article helps you a lot,

Yerai Alonso